Posted On Tuesday, May 27, 2014

* * * * For Immediate Release: * * * *

The ToonSeum Goes 8-Bit With Latest Exhi-BIT!Pittsburgh, PA- The ToonSeum, Pittsburgh’s museum of comic and cartoonart, is going retro with their latest exhibition entitled Art-Bit: The8-Bit Art of Victor Dandridge.The exhibition features popular superheroes, television icons,celebrities and more, re-imagined as 8-bit characters.8-bit is a term used to describe the images used in the video games of the1980’s, as popularized by the Nintendo Entertainment System. Notablecharacters such as Mario, Mega Man, and Donkey Kong made their debutin the 8-bit era.This blocky pixilated style has become as iconic as the gamesthemselves and is currently playing a bit part in a digital pop artresurgence.Artist Victor Dandridge of Columbus, Ohio is at the forefront of saidresurgence.Victor is an independent publisher, artist, educator and life-longcomics fan. His 8-bit art was initially a way to stand outstylistically at comic conventions and he has gone on to createhundreds of individual works. Victor’s debut gallery exhibition ishere, at the Toonseum!“While it would be easy to dismiss the art as simplistic, his work isdeceivingly complex,” said ToonSeum director, Joe Wos. “A great dealof thought goes into the choosing of the color palate and positioningof the blocks in order to convey enough information to represent theseiconic characters.”Joe had seen Victor’s work at a recent comic convention in Chicago.As he observed the crowd gathered around Victor’s art, attempting toidentify the pixilated personas, he knew immediately it would make foran engaging exhibit.These petite prints are only the size of traditional trading cards. Toencourage the audience to engage with Victor’s unique art, theToonSeum has left the prints untitled allowing guests to test their8-bit pop culture knowledge! They can then submit their guesses for achance to win comic and gaming-oriented prizes.This exhibition is sponsored by Schell Games and runs through July 6th2014. A special artist reception will be hosted onJune 12th, 7pm-9pmat the ToonSeum.